Wednesday, July 19, 2017

CableTV News: MSNBC Number One Weeknights

The controversy swirling around Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian attorney gave MSNBC a year-over-year ratings boost this past week, particularly on weekdays in prime time, reports TVNewser.

MSNBC’s weeknight coverage of the saga seemed to resonate quite strongly with adults 25-54, as the network defeated rivals Fox News and CNN in the demo during the Monday – Friday prime time daypart (500,000 vs. 449,000 vs. 313,000).

Hardball with Chris Matthews (7 p.m.), Rachel Maddow (9 p.m.) and The 11th Hour with Brian Williams (11 p.m.) won their respective hours in the A25-54 demo. The 11th Hour was also the No. 1 cable news show of the week in the 11 p.m. hour, per Nielsen data.

Maddow, the heart and soul of the network’s lineup (at least ratings-wise), had the No. 1 cable news program for the week, not just among the ad-friendly A25-54 demographic (626,000) but also in total viewers (2.74 million). Maddow also had the No. 1 basic cable show in total viewers on Friday, July 14, and the 5th-most-watched show across all of television in the A25-54 demo that night.

Fox News, on the other hand, continued to reign supreme in the total viewers category. The network also won the prime time demo for the full Nielsen calendar week (Mon, July 10 through Sun, July 16) by just 1,000 A25-54 viewers (389 vs. 388,000).

FNC finished as the No. 1 basic cable network in total day viewers for the 28th consecutive week. CNN finished No. 10 in total day viewers.